1. Field
Embodiments relate to an electric precipitator, which efficiently charges dust particles even in a region having a high velocity of an air current without lowering dust collecting efficiency, and an air cleaner having the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, electric precipitators are apparatuses, which are mounted in air conditioners, etc., and collect contaminants, such as dust, contained in air so as to purify air.
Among dust collection methods of these electric precipitators, a 2-stage dust collection method in which a charger unit and a collector unit are separately disposed has been widely employed.
In such a 2-stage dust collection method, the charger unit is configured such that a cell formed by a high voltage discharge electrode and counter electrodes is repeatedly installed at the same interval, and the collector unit is configured such that high voltage electrodes and low-voltage electrodes are arranged in parallel to form an electric field.
The high voltage discharge electrodes of the charger unit generally have the shape of a wire, a flat panel, or a needle, and in order to improve discharge characteristics, may have a specific shape. Further, the counter electrodes of the charger unit are installed such that they are separated from the high voltage discharge electrodes by a designated distance and flat surfaces thereof are parallel with an air flow direction.
Such a charger unit serves to charge dust particles, contained in air introduced into the electric precipitator, with positive or negative polarity by corona discharge.
That is, since the counter electrodes are grounded and thus have zero potential, when high voltage of positive polarity or negative polarity is applied to the discharge electrodes, corona discharge occurs between the discharge electrodes and the counter electrodes, dust particles contained in air are charged with positive or negative polarity by the corona discharge, and the charged dust particles move along an air flow to and are collected in the collector unit.
However, when an air flow passing through the electric precipitator is made using an air blower device, dust collecting efficiency of the electric precipitator in some cells having a high velocity of an air current is rapidly lowered. Therefore, the efficiency of the electric precipitator in regions having a high velocity of the air current is lowered, and thus application of the electric precipitator to an air cleaner is hard.
Further, since respective cells are arranged at the same interval in the charger unit of the conventional electric precipitator, dust particles contained in air in cells having a high velocity of the air current may not be sufficiently charged and energy higher than energy required to charge the particles may be input to cells having a low velocity of the air current. Therefore, energy beyond what is required is input, and thus energy efficiency is lowered.